February 8, 2006 FEMA Emergency Management Higher Education Project Activity Report
(1) DISASTER FILMS AND VIDEOS ANNOTATION PROJECT:
February 8, 2006 -- Received from project developer, Rich Weber, formerly with the University of North Texas and now with the Ohio Office of Emergency Management, the most recent draft of an annotated bibliography of disaster-related films and videos which could be used to support emergency management-related college courses. The document was forwarded to the EMI webmaster for upload to the Project website -- Free College Courses, Books, Materials section -- Materials subsection -- to replace the previous draft -- and should be accessible shortly. For additional information on this project, Rich Weber can be reached at:
(2) DISASTER PLANNING:
Voorhis, Scot Van. "Quarantine Quandary - Critics Say Evacuation Won't Work After Bio Boo-Boo." Boston Herald, February 7, 2006. Accessed at:
(3) EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT/HOMELAND SECURITY/DEFENSE HIGHER EDUCATION CONFERENCE, JUNE 5-8, 2006:
February 8, 2006 -- Communicated with Dr. David Neal, Director, Center for the Study of Disasters and Extreme Events, Professor, Fire and Emergency Management Program, Department of Political Science, OklahomaStateUniversity, Stillwater, OK, concerning his development of a Breakout Session for the afternoon of day 3 on "Command and Control versus Cooperation and Coordination Disaster Response Models."
Communicated with David Crisp, Florida Division of Emergency Management, his participation in the conference, as the representative of FL DEM Director Craig Fugate, on the plenary panel "Perspectives on Catastrophe Readiness and Response -- State Emergency Management."
Communicated with Dr. Robert Schwartz, ArkansasTechUniversity and with Dr's Wilson and Oyola-Yemaiel at North DakotaStateUniversity on combining two breakout sessions on day 2 of the draft agenda into one that all three would be responsible for -- each had volunteered to develop and moderate one of these sessions. The two sessions both deal with "Maintaining and Growing Existing Emergency Management and Homeland Security Collegiate Programs" -- one breakout session at graduate level and another at upper division undergraduate level. All agreed on the combination of the two.
Communicated with Dr. Todd Stewart (USAF Ret. Major General), Director of the Program for International and Homeland Security at OhioStateUniversity, concerning adding him to the agenda to discuss the homeland security series of textbooks he is developing for a major publishing company.
Communicated with Dr. Shannon Stanley about the development of the breakout session she has volunteered to develop and moderate -- dealing with how to surge capacities in catastrophe, with a focus on volunteers.
Communicated with John Lindsay, Assistant Professor and Chair, Department of Applied Disaster and Emergency Studies at BrandonUniversity in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, about his taking on the responsibility for developing and moderating a breakout session at the conference on "Comparative Emergency Management" -- titled "International Disaster Management" at previous conferences. John volunteered to take on this responsibility and would be interested in communicating with others who might wish to participate in this session. The primary purpose of such a session is threefold: 1. To present a venue during which participants from abroad could talk about their programs or initiatives. 2. To investigate the question are there common or more or less universal principles of emergency management that transcend geo-political boundaries. 3. To learn from the experiences of others. Particularly after hearing a presentation at a hazards conference in Toronto this past early Fall on how difficult it was to find consensus on emergency management principles, it seems like a good idea to push this topic forwards. Anyone interested in the Comparative Emergency Management Conference Breakout Session should contact John Lindsay at:
Forwarded for upload to the HiEd Conference box at the top of the EM HiEd Project Homepage a short document on the background and goals ofthe June 5-8, 2006 Conference -- should be accessible shortly.
(4) KATRINA:
Pereira, David. "Missed Signals - Katrina Laid Bare the Sorry State of Emergency Communications - Now What?" Government Executive Magazine, February 1, 2006. Accessed at:
Strohm, Chris. "Homeland Security, GAO Trade Barbs On Katrina Investigation." Government Executive, February 1, 2006. Accessed at:
(5) ST. EDWARD'S UNIVERSITY, AUSTIN TX -- PUBLIC SAFETY MANAGEMENTPROGRAM:
February 6-7, 2006 -- Exchanged emails with Dr. Craig Campbell, Director of Public Safety Management at St. Edwards who notes:
"This is to let you know that we have made some changes to the Public Safety Management B.A. at St. Edward's University. These changes were made in part because of my attendance at the annual conference the last two years.
1.) It became apparent to me at the conference that our curriculum in public safety management was missing vital information about the emergency management functions. I came back and began the process to amend our curriculum and recruit an experienced person from the emergency management field to teach the emergency management class.
2.) I also added the director of the local emergency management office to our advisory board of police, fire, and emergency medical leaders.
3.) The success that many reported at the conference with using online education has encouraged us to develop our courses to be taught online.
We can now offer a person the opportunity to complete their B.A. degree online. The program is designed to allow someone with an associate's degree to complete their B.A. without leaving their employment. We are in the process of identifying community colleges to work with in helping in the development of their students.
The emergency management approach adds perspective and tools to the overall mission of public safety. I salute the excellent work done by everyone involved." Dr. Campbell also notes that he is now investigating the development of an emergency management concentration within the Public Safety Degree, or an Emergency Management stand-alone certificate. For additional information, Dr. Campbell can be reached
at:
(6) THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS AND THE REMAKING OF WORLD ORDER -- SAMUEL HUNTINGTON:
Finished reading this book (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1996) -- an expansion of Dr. Huntington's 1993 "Foreign Affairs" article on "The Clash of Civilizations" -- which pits the West against other civilizations in a losing battle over time, especially against Sinic and Muslim civilizations. As someone whose graduate work was in foreign affairs, I found the book very interesting, though I still remain in the Realpolitik camp within international affairs theory. The article and book have caused a great deal of discussion, commentary and response -- I'm reading a book on "The New Crusaders" which is a direct response to Huntington. This theory of the clash of civilizations is one which I would expect to find treated in an undergraduate and certainly in a graduate course on terrorism -- though I would recommend the very much shorter 1993 "Foreign Affairs" article for use in such courses as opposed to the book. For what it's worth, the article is on my own top ten list of core terrorism related readings.
(7) WAR ON TERROR:
Reuters. "Terror Risk From WMD Exaggerated, Experts Say." February 7, 2006. Accessed at:
(8) WESTERNWISCONSINTECHNICALCOLLEGE -- INVESTIGATING DEVELOPMENT OF EM & HS PROGRAM:
February 8, 2006 -- Talked with Paul Albright at Western Wisconsin who notes that the school is beginning the process of investigating the development of an emergency management and homeland security program. In that Mr. Albright had learned of the EM & HS/D Hi Ed Conference coming up in June, he thought attending the conference would be a good way of furthering this investigation -- to which we agree and noted that we would extend an invitation.
B.Wayne Blanchard, Ph.D., CEM
Higher Education Project Manager
Emergency Management Institute
NationalEmergencyTrainingCenter
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Department of Homeland Security
16825 S. Seton, N-430
Emmitsburg, MD21727
(301) 447-1262, voice
(301) 447-1598, fax
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